The Number Field

The time of year has come for Jenny and I to pull together all of our ideas and start working on our Christmas packages . Of course, we're starting early with Elena--she plays an integral part in this year's plan. Without giving the theme away, she's helping us with a craft project. Trust me, it's a great idea, but between the three of us we have no experience with this particular kind of thing.

As with any craft, practice makes perfect, so on Monday we did our first trial run. First, I made a pretty crucial mistake and we had to start over. Then Elena didn't really comprehend what she was supposed to do, so we had to scuttle our second attempt. After that, we decided to rethink our strategy. We're hopeful about some ideas, but if they don't work we might have to abandon this part of the package and replace it with something else.

On another note, I haven't written recently about the adventures of Elena and Jewel. Elena loves this cat more and more every day, and does everything she can to be close to Jewel, even though she isn't fast enough to catch her. Jewel has picked up on this, and I think that she has a Pied Piper complex. She leads Elena into odd corners, then jumps safely out of the way, leaving Elena to look up longingly. Someday soon the pendulum will swing, when Elena learns to crawl for real and pull herself up to standing, so Jewel needs to enjoy this time of relative safety.

Of course, we do everything we can to promote positive relations between the baby and the kitty. Jewel is often surprisingly calm when we bring her over to Elena for petting practice. Even when we put her right in Elena's lap, she bears it very well. Elena, on the other hand, becomes extremely excited, squealing and waving her hands. We help her to pet the kitty gently, and not pull ears. I think she's especially interested in Jewel's whiskers. By keeping these encounters short, we hope that Jewel will eventually become Elena's friend. Here's a video depicting the current state of affairs:

Elena continues to find new ways to express herself. Verbally, she's learning and practicing new sounds on a regular basis. Today I heard her making some "mmmm" sounds, so maybe she's on her way to her first meaningful "mama."

Physically, she also has ways of letting us know what she wants. She claps when she's happy, and scoots over to Jenny and lifts up her arms when she wants to be picked up. We've tried to teach her the baby signs for "more" and "all done," and we think that she might have asked for more once or twice, but for the most part she still isn't picking up on that. Instead, when we aren't feeding her enough she bangs her hand on the tray of her high chair.

Amidst all the other expressive developments, Elena's tongue remains a focal point. I'm amazed by everything it does effortlessly. For one thing, she can keep it in her mouth when she needs to be serious. When she's concentrating on something, her tongue flips to a vertical orientation--for all my trying, I can't figure out how to do that, but it's just effortless for her. I'm more successful at imitating the "tongue cup," where she pulls up the tip and sides. I think that she developed this to help her eat faster, but now she does the same thing when she's just playing around.

Jenny has noticed one other tongue expression. When Elena is very happy, she'll open her mouth as wide as she can and stick her tongue out, then pull it back in repeatedly. I think it's interesting that most of Elena's tongue tricks happen when she's happy. I guess when she's upset, none of us care to notice what is going on specifically with her tongue.

We've been busy, and I wasn't making time to post updates here. For that reason alone, I've been working on streamlining my schedule and increasing my productivity so that I can bring you the content you so fervently desire and richly deserve.

I still need to finish the saga of our summer vacation with an installment on the voyage home, but that will have to wait for later. For now, a short update on the current state of affairs will have to suffice.

I had a great birthday, especially because I got to celebrate in the morning with Jenny and Elena, and in the afternoon with my parents, brothers, and one sister. After I got home from my trip, Jenny threw a surprise party for me. On the other hand, my interviews didn't go quite as well as I had hoped and I received no job offer from McKinsey. I have discovered that I still have time to apply for the other top-line consulting firms, so we'll see what happens in my ongoing job search.

More recently Elena has been dealing with a cold. She's through the worst of it now, and had returned to her normal perky self this evening, but it's been a rough few days--weepy eyes, runny nose, waking up in the middle of the night, crying more than usual. This has really been her first cold, and I hope that we can keep illness to a minimum, because it's just no fun.

Even with a cold, this weekend Elena was happy to see all the grandparents from Jenny's side of the family. They came down here for the blessing of her cousin. Cousin Ainsley is still so little that there isn't much to do other than hold her, so Elena put on her smiles and showed off her clapping and scooting skills to get lots of attention. We were sad to see them all go, but we all have to return to our regularly scheduled lives.

As for a schedule, going forward I plan to write two posts per week. Expect one on Monday or Tuesday, and the other on Thursday or Friday. Elena is growing fast, but I hope this schedule allows me to keep up with her.

Remember, the other option is a navy suit, three buttons, several years old but still in good condition, freshly cleaned and pressed.

With all my focus on recording everything that happened on our vacation, I've neglected Elena's current developments. Here's a big one: she can now make consistent forward progress. She employs a military-style crawl, lifting herself up on one elbow, then pushing with her leg. She's been doing it for about a week now, and is moving faster every day. We're waiting for her to get up on her knees and figure out how to crawl for real; then we'll be in real trouble. She has a look in her eyes that speaks to her need for speed.

It's the most fun when Jenny is changing Elena into her pajamas before bed. She flips over and tries frantically to get away by scooting across the bed, laughing all the while. We hope to have video soon.

While we were in Washington, Grandpa Tony and Grandma Renee were always very gracious hosts. They planned fun activities for us, fed us good food, and took care of Elena when Jenny and I wanted a little break. In addition, they provided us with lovely acommodations--Elena even had her own room. We couldn't have asked for anything more.

Early in our visit, Tony invited me to go shooting. On Friday, a day or two later, we headed to the Kennewick Hole in the Wall indoor firing range. I started out with a nine millimeter handgun, then moved on to a .22 rifle. With both of them, I managed to hit the target almost all the time. Then Tony moved me up to a gun that he said would impress people if I told them about it--the .44 Desert Eagle . Apparently, even non-shooters know about this gun, possibly because of its appearance in some shoot-em-up video games. In any case, it had quite a kick, so my accuracy went down, but I was still able to hit the target. I was ready to go before long, and I'm afraid that the trip didn't achieve Tony's goal: I had a good time, but I have no greater desire to own a gun now than I did before we went shooting.

The next day was very food-oriented. After Jenny and I went for a morning run with Elena, we all packed up and headed to IHOP for brunch. I had a big stack of butterscotch pancakes, while Jenny opted for an omelet. Tony and Renee both chose Hawaiian-inspired pancakes. We did have one small incident: grandpa Tony tried to give Elena some whipped cream, but was reprimanded by Jenny and Renee. He didn't know that babies aren't supposed to be fed dairy products until they're a year old.

In the evening, we had a barbeque for family and Jenny's friends that still live in the area. We were happy to see the Couches and hear all their dog stories, as well as Jenny's high school friend Chris and his family, which included their brand new baby. Paul and his family came, and Elena got to meet some second cousins--the children of Tony's brother Gabe. The older kids played on a slip-n-slide and with some other water toys, and all the food was just right.

After my trip to Atlanta, we kicked things into high gear, so that we could do all the things we wanted to before we left. Renee wanted to pit me against Tony in a battle of Seinfeld trivia, care of Scene-It . Sadly, the game didn't quite live up to expectations. Jenny, however, showed that she is a true Seinfeld expert.

Another much-anticipated event was our trip to a Mexican bakery. A few times we had eaten what Renee called 'porquitos' for dessert--they were sort of a soft gingerbread cookie in the shape of a pig. In my mind, porquitos were one of the lesser delights of the Mexican bakery. I focused in on the donuts as big as my face. Jenny picked up a dessert empanada. I think that it was my first empanadas ever, but I hope it won't be my last.

We wanted to show our thanks somehow, and Tony gave me one opportunity to use my technical expertise. He wanted a wireless network in the house, and asked me to recommend the appropriate equipment. Right after visiting the bakery, we stopped by the WalMart and picked up a wireless router. It was easy to choose, and easy to set up in the house--mostly a plug and play job. I was glad to be of use.

All of a sudden the day before our departure, Grandpa Tony offered to give us a GPS unit for our trip home. They said to consider it an early Christmas present. It caught me off-guard when they asked me to pick something out because this is the kind of thing I usually research for months before making a decision. I got to work and quickly narrowed down my options, then decided on a Garmin Nuvi. We found a good deal on at Best Buy, and after one unsuccessful trip (they had just closed), picked it up on the morning of our departure. It served us well on our trip back to Utah, and has been very useful back here in Texas.

We're glad that we got to visit her Grandpa Tony and Grandma Renee, but I think they were most happy to have Elena as a guest. We'll try to take her back there as often as possible.

I'm going to take a break from reporting on our vacation to write about yesterday's happenings and put them in context. Jenny, Elena and I spent the whole afternoon and a good portion of the evening shopping for a new suit. We first looked at a Brooks Brothers factory store in the nearby outlet mall, and found some decent options. After that, just for fun we went to the Zegna outlet, where even after the half-off discount, suits still cost easily more than a thousand dollars.

After a brief rest and food break at home, Elena seemed to be happy and ready for more, so we decided to head out to the old standby, JoS. A. Bank. When we entered, we were the only customers in the store, and the salesmen attended to us immediately. They were friendly and helpful, and explained to us the numerous sales and special offers. I thought I wanted a plain charcoal suit, but after showing me a few of those, the salesman pointed me to perhaps the best deal in the store.

Due to its pinstripe pattern, it didn't quite fit my requirement for an extremely conservative suit. However, it came from their premium line of suits; before I had been looking at the basic level. Price wise, this suit was on clearance so it would cost the same as the sale price on one of the basic suits. After looking around the store a little longer and thinking about the suit, we decided to go for it.

You might ask why I need a new suit. For one thing, the suits I currently wear are getting a little bit long in the tooth. I think they still look nice enough, but Jenny suggested that I needed a new one some time ago and I had to agree with her. And now I have even more of a reason to need one. This summer, an email came across the wire from the career services department of my school. It said that McKinsey, a prestigious consulting firm, wanted more applications from advanced degree candidates. At first the application was just for a weekend-long "Introduction to Consulting program" for those graduating in the next two years, so I applied. Although they didn't invite me to the weekend event, a few months later they invited me to interview for a regular position within the company.

The first round of the process took place while we were on vacation. I left Jenny and Elena in Washington and headed to Atlanta, where the company put me up in a pretty nice hotel the night before the interview. In the morning, along with about a dozen other people I took an hour-long written exam, called the McKinsey Problem Solving Test, that served as the main evaluation tool for the round. It was followed by a pair of group interviews that were designed to help us prepare for the next round, if we happened to make it.

The next day, back in Washington, I learned that I did make it through to the next round, which I attended this past week, just before classes started at school. In this round I had three 'case interviews,' like the group interviews before, but one-on-one. A case interview puts the interviewee in the position of a consultant. They present a business case (usually based on a real engagement), and ask for analysis and recommendations. After three hours of interviewing, I was pretty tired.

Two days later, I got a morning call from one of my interviewers. He shared the good news that they were inviting back for a final round, this time specifically for the Washington, D.C. office. That interview will be on September 18th, hence our day of suit shopping. I'm not sure that I'll wear the suit that I bought to the interview; I might go with the navy suit I currently have, but it will be good to have a second option to consider. Now I can turn my attention to preparation and practice for the interview.

In Washington, it was good to settle in and know that we were going to stay for a while. After relaxing on the first evening, we found plenty of things to do in the ensuing days. We tried to make the most of our time, and also use the grandparents' excellent babysitting skills when possible, so that we could do some things without Elena.

Almost every day, either Jenny or I went running along the banks of the Columbia river. We appreciated the cool mornings, especially because Austin was in the middle of a lengthy string of triple-digit days, on its way to one of the warmest summers ever. One day, we took Elena's stroller and all went together--I walked with Elena while Jenny ran, then eventually she turned around and made her way back to us. She took over the stroller and headed back to the car, while I ran back home.

We also went to visit Elena's cousins and great-grandma almost every day. Jenny's brother Paul, his wife Veronica, and their kids Alisa, Sam, Michael, and Aaron all had a great time playing with Elena, and she had a wonderful time meeting and getting to know them. She also instantly loved her Grammies (Jenny's grandma), who wanted to hold her whenever we were together. Jenny was happy to hand Elena over, because they had two friendly adolescent cats that she wanted to see and hold. So it all worked out for everybody. Including me--Paul has a pretty amazing saltwater aquarium that I could watch for hours.

As a part of our first visit, we went out for lunch at McDonald's. While the big kids played in the PlayPlace, and Jenny talked with Grammies and Veronica about things, Elena was ready for a nap, so I sang to her and put her in her car seat. She went down happily and peacefully; nobody even realized that she was napping until they noticed that she was nowhere to be seen. Grammies could hardly believe that she would go down so quickly and quietly amidst the noise.

On Friday, we met Paul and some of the kids at a little farmer's market in downtown Richland. Paul wanted Jenny to make some salsa from a base of his homegrown heirloom tomatos, and was looking for the remainder of the ingredients. We bought some Hermiston watermelons for a cookout the following night. The next day Jenny did make the salsa, and it was amazing. Homegrown tomatoes are always more flavorful than store-bought ones, but each of Paul's was a different color and they all had slightly different flavors that blended beautifully in the salsa.

For church that Sunday we dressed Elena in an outfit that Grammies had given her, so that merited a visit to show her in person. We arrived just as everyone else was getting ready for church, and hope that we didn't make them late. In any case, Grammies was very happy to see Elena in her beautiful white and lilac dress. It was time for Elena's nap, and she was able to fall asleep right on her great-grandma's bed.

Monday brought Veronica and the kids to us, as a neighbor of Grandpa Tony extended an open invitation for us to use their pool. We were very thankful for the baby swimmer that Veronica let us borrow, and I had a good time playing in the deep end with the older kids. That evening they invited us over for dinner. Paul grilled steaks, which were wonderful with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. His whole-wheat rolls really deserve a special mention. He and Veronica told us about how they started with a certain recipe for regular rolls, then methodically tweaked it until they found perfection. We just wanted to eat more and more, but eventually we had to leave.

The next day, while I was flying to Atlanta (more about that later), Jenny and Elena went on a drive with Grammies, Veronica, and the kids. They visited Vantage, home to a petrified forest. That was also the day that we learned that Elena had a new cousin--Ainsley was born in Texas, so that added even more excitement to the day.

For cousin Alisa, the highlight of our whole trip came on Thursday. The prior week, Jenny noticed Alisa admiring some earrings while at the farmers' market, and asked when she might get her ears pierced. There was a certain amount of confusion, but it eventually turned out that both her parents were agreeable to the idea. Jenny decided that she wanted to be the 'cool aunt' who would make it happen. Finally, on Thursday evening we found time to do it. We wanted just to pick Alisa up and take her over to the mall, but upon further investigation realized that we needed a parent's actual presence, not just a signed permission slip. So it turned into another whole-family outing.

At the mall, we were met by Grandma Renee, who really wanted to see the procedure, and eventually Veronica and Sammy caught up to us after their Cub Scout meeting. I made sure to keep Elena out in the hallway--I didn't want Jenny to take any impulsive action or try to get a two for one discount. As a result, I got to hang out with Sammy and watch Michael, who had been removed from the store before he knocked anything over. For some reason, Elena started to laugh any time Sammy looked at her, even more so when he made funny faces.

Before too long, Alisa picked out her earrings, got a full lecture on proper ear care, and had the earrings installed. Alisa was elated, and everyone else was very pleased, then we all went out for ice cream. Jenny just received a report from Grammies that Alisa is taking good care of her ears, to prevent infection.

We only saw Paul's family one more time after that, when we stopped on our way out of town to say our goodbyes. We were all sad to say goodbye, but I think Aaron took it the hardest. But it was time for us to go, so we bundled up into our car and waved and honked one last time as we headed out.

I still have to write about all the fun times we had and fun things we did with Grandpa Tony and Grandma Renee. Don't worry--that's coming up in my next post about the vacation.

I'll resume the tale of our trip starting with Tuesday, August fourth. We had noticed that Amy and Matt were in the middle of painting their house, but also had numerous other projects going on. We had some free time, and Jenny wanted to visit with Amy more, so we volunteered to help paint their stairwell. With thanks to Gerrit for loaning me some painting clothes, we put a coat of paint on most of their stairwell. As thanks, Amy fed us lunch and gave us some freshly-baked cookies for our drive that afternoon.

Before I forget--on the short drive from Heidi's house to Amy's house, we saw a Ferrari cruising by. I thought that was pretty cool, but then all of a sudden there was a second one, then a couple of Porsches and Corvettes, then a vintage Mercedes roadster. Before we knew it they were out of sight, so we didn't have time to snap any photos. However, we did notice that they all bore decals for Utah Fast Pass .

After helping Amy, Jenny was pretty excited to buy powdered chocolate milk directly from the distributor. I suppose it isn't quite milk, because it has some non-dairy components. She bought a five-pound can, even though we thought we might come up against luggage limits on our return flight. I am now happy to report that we made it home, Morning Moos and all, with no luggage trouble.

In the afternoon we went with Heidi and Ginny to visit my grandparents in Layton. They had also invited Uncle Mark and Aunt Winnie for dinner. We enjoyed visiting them very much, but Elena hadn't had a very good nap, so she fussed quite a bit. Grandma wanted nothing more than to see Elena roll over, but Elena didn't want to lie on the floor. I put Elena down, and amidst her yelling and screaming she did manage to roll over, which satisfied Grandma.

Before we left, Grandma gave Elena a plush teddy bear as a present. She told us that when she saw it, she immediately thought of Elena. Elena loves this bear--it's her favorite stuffed animal. We often give Bear (we name her stuffed animals categorically) to her while we're driving. A few minutes later, we hear her talking back there and when we look in the mirror, we see that she's holding Bear out in front of her and having a conversation with him. On our last flight back to Austin, we kept Elena happy the whole way by playing hide and seek with Bear.

Upon leaving my grandparents' house, our destination was Boise, Idaho. There's not much to say about the vast, empty expanse of southern Idaho, except that at the end of it our windshield was absolutely covered with bugs. We were glad that we had an iPod, because I don't think that there are any radio stations out there, and eventually I got tired of Jenny plying me for details about my life before I knew her.

We finally reached our hotel late at night, and it was amazing. We love the Cambria Suites Boise , and if you're ever in Boise, we highly recommend it. Even more so if you book it on priceline.com for an absolute steal (email me for details). The staff was superb, and got a Pack-N-Play for Elena right away. The suite had a living area and a sleeping area, each with a TV. We managed to transfer our sleeping baby from her car seat to the playpen without awaking her. Then we watched TV in the other part of the suite without worrying that she would wake. Finally, the bed was like a dream, especially for Jenny, who slept very well.

The following day we did something that I had been looking forward to since seeing a large billboard the night before. My family's favorite place to get camping gear and clothing is the Sierra Trading Post discount catalog, and they have two outlet stores--one in Wyoming (which we've all been to), and one near Boise. To my knowledge, we were the first to visit the Boise store. I almost bought some manpri pants, but decided that would be unwise.

After that, we drove as quickly as possible through the rest of Idaho, into Oregon, and on towards Washington, or, as Jenny calls it, the promised land. Just after lunch, Elena had her first major car meltdown. We didn't know what to do, so we just kept going; we knew she was tired and just needed to go to sleep. Eventually she did, and slept all the way to the Tri-Cities, our destination.

That afternoon we relaxed and spent time with Jenny's dad Tony and his wife Renee--they started to spoil Elena as soon as we got there. They have a refrigerator magnet that reads "Children are spoiled because you can't spank Grandma." One of their friends has a large amount of baby gear, and graciously allowed us to borrow it--toys, stroller, high chair, Pack-N-Play and more.

The instant hit was a rainforest-themed baby gym and play area. Renee found it at a yard sale, and got it for Elena. We wanted something like this, but hadn't found anything as elaborate as this. At the end of our trip, they told us that if we could fit it in our luggage we were welcome to take it. I folded and squeezed it as much as possible and just barely got it to fit. Now it's in our front room, and is one of Elena's main play areas.

Even though Jenny was happy to be done with driving and be with her family, the cherry on top of the day for her was the tacos we had for dinner.

On Monday morning, we decided that to help Elena rest, our best option would be to take Elena on a walk. We borrowed Ginny's stroller, which doesn't get much use these days (but probably will soon), and walked around the neighborhood. Although they live only a few blocks from downtown, some people on the corner keep chickens in their yard and the neighboring community garden. By the time we got to the end of the state fairgrounds, Elena had fallen asleep, and she stayed that way once we got back, giving us the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful breakfast that Heidi made for us featuring chocolate chip pancakes.

After Gerrit drove us downtown to pick up our rental car, we went back to their house and found that both babies were happy and awake. We put them down together on a blanket from their aunt Laura, and saw the beginnings of an enduring friendship. Elena knows how to roll over, and Ginny knows how to sit up, so they each had something to teach the other. As soon as she got the chance, Elena grabbed whatever part of Ginny she could reach and tried to stuff it into her own mouth. Ginny didn't seem to mind too much. After we left on Tuesday, I got a call from Heidi reporting that Elena had inspired Ginny to roll over. We're working with Elena on sitting up--she can do it for a little while, but still prefers lying down, so she can be more mobile.

We split up the cousins when we left to visit some of Jenny's friends who live in the Salt Lake valley. First up was a friend, Kelly, who had moved away Texas at about the time Jenny and I started dating. Our little rental car got a stiff test on the drive up to her place, which took us three miles and several thousand feet straight up the mountain--I would love to tackle that road on my bike. The views from her back porch were absolutely stunning. We got to meet Kelly's fiance John, who seemed to be a really nice guy. He even took a turn holding Elena while I was taking some pictures of Jenny and Kelly. Although that took him out of his comfort zone, he did a good job. We also walked around the grounds of the newly-built Draper temple with them. Jenny really enjoyed looking at the flowers, which seemed especially vibrant in the clear mountain air.

From there, we stopped by a supermarket to pick up our assignment for a picnic that evening with several of Jenny's friends from high school. From the store it was off to Amy's house to chop the vegetables and visit some before the picnic. Amy, one of the aforementioned friends, organized the whole thing, even though she's six months pregnant and has two small children. Although the girls were shy at first, eventually they warmed up to us (and me in particular).

Although I've met Amy before, I had never met her husband Matt, so I was glad to meet him when he got home from work. After that it was time to pack up and drive an hour through peak traffic to the picnic location, a neighborhood splash park somewhere at the very edge of the Salt Lake City suburb complex. The trip seemed extra long to me because I was squashed in the back seat next to Elena, which was fun, but isolating. However, the trip was worth it--the food was good and Jenny's high school friends and their families were very nice. I'm not sure why you would build a splash park without a water fountain; we emptied our water bottles and I was still thirsty, but there was no place to refill it.

The return trap didn't take nearly as long, but by the time we got back to Heidi and Gerrit's house, Elena was ready for bed. She slept much better that night than she had the one before.